Blender texturing effects
I am a newbie, but the only thing I could think of is to change the lighting in precise spots.  What could be done with nodes? So I went looking. 

I found this video for the basic question of making a section of the texture light up, in an example of making "lava cracks" glow. But it doesn't address the question of changing what lights up over time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEdA5pP5Wrk

Here's another that includes texture painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF3hj5s5pr0 

This one shows you (toward the end) how to animate a texture by keyframing the changes to it. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa7wJZBuKXw 

And finally, here is another Stack Exchange answer on how to change textures as an animations plays. 
Is it possible to change material overtime by keyframes in swipe effect?